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THE 



SOCIETY of the CINCINNATI 



IN THE 



STATE OF NEW YORK 




NEW YORK 
19 2 1 



THE 
SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI 

IN THE 
STATE OF NEW YORK 



ITS 



HISTORY, AIMS 



AND 



REQUIREMENTS FOR MEMBERSHIP 




BY 

WILLIAM STURGIS THOMAS. M. D 



Printed by order of the 

STANDING COMMITTEE 

New York 

1921 









S*A 



E. 2,02, 




WASHINGTON 

First President General of the Cincinnati 




ORIGIN 

HE Society of the Cincinnati was formed at the close of 
the Revolutionary War by commissioned officers of the 
regular army, for patriotic, beneficient and social pur- 
poses. 
The struggle for American independence was already won by 
the spring of* 1783 when the army lay cantoned in their log huts 
among the hills beside the Hudson River, in the vicinity of New 
Windsor New York. Here they waited for news of the conclusion 
at Paris of the treatv of peace with Great Britain. The American 
militia had been called to service for the last time and were long 
since returned to their homes. The regular army, or Continental 
Line, were about to disband. Eight years of warfare were ended- 
the best years of the lives of many of the men and officers, and the 
most fateful. They were not unaware of what had been achieved in 
the world's history. They knew that an empire was born, founded 
upon the newly awakened principles of liberty and equal opportunity 
under the law. It seemed fitting to the officers of the army to resolve 
with each other, before they parted, to keep alive the ideals for which 
they had fought and suffered. And so they banded themselves to- 
gether into a" fraternal fellowship, under an agreement or compact 
which they styled The Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati, ll 
possesses the spirit of the Mayflower Compact and that of the 
Declaration of Independence, and opens thus: 

INSTITUTION 

It having pleased the Supreme Governor of the Universe, in the dispo- 
sition of human affairs, to cause the separation of the Colonies of North 
America from the domination of Great Britain, and after a bloody conflict ot 
eight years to establish them free, independent and sovereign States, connected 
by alliances founded upon reciprocal advantages, with some of the greatest 
princes and powers of the earth. 

To perpetuate therefore, as well the remembrance of this vast event, as 
the mutual friendships which have been formed under the pressure of common 
danger, and in many instances cemented by the blood of the parties, the officers 
of the American Army do, in the most solemn manner, associate, constitute and 
combine themselves into one SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, to endure as long 
as they shall endure, or any of their eldest male posterity, and in failure 
thereof, the collateral branches, who may be judged worthy of becoming its 
Mipporters and members. 



The officers of the American Anns having been generally taken from 
the citizens of America, possess high veneration for the character of that 
illustrious Roman, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, and being resolved to follow 
his example, by returning to their citizenship, they think they may, with 
propriety, denominate themselves the Society of the Cincinnati. 

The following principles shall be immutable, and form the basis of the 
Society of the Cincinnati: 

An incessant attention to preserve inviolate those exalted rights of 
human nature, for which they have fought and bled, and without which the 
high rank of a rational being, is a curse instead of a blessing. 

An unalterable determination to promote and cherish, between the 
respective States, that union and national honor, so essentially necessary to 
their happiness, and the future dignity of the American empire. 

To render permanent the cordial affection suhsisting between the officers. 
This spirit will dictate brotherly kindness in all things, and particularly extend 
to the most substantial acts of heneiicence, according to the ability of the 
Society, towards those officers and their families who unfortunately may be 
under the necessity of receiving it. 

The name, the objects and the ideals assigned to it by its found- 
ers, are still held by the Society and are guarded as sacred heritages. 
Ohio's second largest city of today is named after this American 
Society whose members followed the example of the illustrious 
Roman and invoked his surname to lie their inspiration. 

OBJECTS OF THE FOUNDERS 

In the first years of its existence the Society was criticized as 
tending to found an hereditary aristocracy. The insinuation is an- 
swered in part by the words of the Institution above ((noted. What 
the founders aimed at was some bond which would still unite those 
who had shared the hardships of camp and the dangers of the battle- 
held, and who were about to separate, main of them penniless, with 
homes ruined and families dispersed or dead. They sought the 
means of providing for the necessities of the more -fortunate of 
their number and of their widows and orphans. The) wished their 
children to inherit and keep alive the friendship of the fathers, and 
devotion to their ideals. Criticism of the Society came largely from 
those for whom had been obtained a country and field for their 
ambition, without their having had to undergo the dangers and priva- 
tions of military service in the war. In further refutation of these 



critics, it may be recalled that General Washington was the first to 
sign the roll of members and remained at the head of the Society as 
its first President-General until his death in 1799. 

The full list of Presidents-General, with their dates of tenure, 
follows : 

1783 General George Washington, Commander-in-Chief, Virginia. 

1800 Major-General Alexander Hamilton, New York. 

1805 Major-General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, South Carolina. 

1825 Major-General Thomas Pinckney, South Carolina. 

1829 Major-General Aaron Ogden, New Jersey. 

1839 Major-General Morgan Lewis, New York. 

1844 Brevet-Major William Popham*. New York. 

1848 Brigadier-General Henry Alexander Scammel Dearborn, Massachusetts. 

1854 Honorable Hamilton Fish, New York. 

1896 Honorable William Wayne, Pennsylvania. 

1902 Honorable Winslow Warren, Masachusetts. 

* Last Continental officer of the Revolution to hold the office. 

Membership in the Society was shared by officers from France 
who served in the American Revolutionary Army, as well as by the 
commanders in the French Army and Navy who participated in the 
war as our allies. 

GENERAL SOCIETY AND STATE SOCIETIES 

In order to facilitate personal association and intercourse in 
those days of primitive means of travel, the General Society was 
divided into state organizations, one for each of the original thirteen 
states of the United States of America. Each state association sends 
live delegates to the meeting of the General Society of the Cincinnati, 
which is held once in every three years. The triennial assemblages 
occur successively in the several thirteen states. The State Societies 
meet several times in each year. That of New York holds a stated 
meeting on Cincinnati Day. May tenth, and an annual meeting on the 
Fourth of July. A banquet occurs on Washington's Birthday and 
on November twenty-fifth there is a luncheon to celebrate the evacua- 
tion of New York by the British in 1783. 

. FUNDS 

At the time of the foundation of the Society, each member con- 
tributed toward the permanent fund of his state body, a sum of 
money equal to one month's army pay. This fund has been kept intacl 



in New York and the interest from it used in part to contribute 
toward the support of widows and orphans oi deceased members who 
may be under the necessity of receiving aid. Persons admitted to 
the New York Society in the right of officers who signed the roll 
as original members are not required to pay any fee, since their con- 
tribution has been already paid. Those admitted by right of descent 
from Revolutionary officers whose services secured to them the 
right of eligibility, but who did not join the Society, are required to 
contribute a sum equal to one month's pay of their respective officer 
ancestor. 

The following pay table for infantry officers of the Continental 
Line was adopted by the Congress on May 27th, 1778: 



Rank 












Pay 


per month 


Colonel 














$75 


1 ,ieutenant-Colonel 




- 










60 


Major 














50 


Captain 














40 


Captain- Lieutenant 














26 2/3 


Lieutenant 














26 2/3 


Ensign 














20 


Surgeon 














60 


Surgeon's Mate 














40 


Paymaster, taken from 


the Line, 


and 


to 


receive 




in addition to 


his 


line pay 








20 


Quartermaster, taken as 


above 


and 


paid 


as 


above 


13 


Adjutant, taken as 


above and 


pa 


id as 


above 


13 



There are no dues or assessments required of members of the 
Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New York. 

REVOLUTIONARY ARMY SERVICE 

Right to membership in the Society was defined by its founders 
to exist in officers of the Line (regular army), holding commissions 
from the Continental Congress, who were in any of the following 
classes : 

(a) Those in service at the time of the institution of the 
Society in May, 1783. 

(b) Those officers previously deranged (retired) by act 
of the Continental Congress. 

(c) Those who served three years as commissioned offi- 
cers of the Continental Line. 



The Institution provides, in the case of officers who died as 
such, in service during the war. that, as a testimony of affection to 
their memory and to their offspring, their eldest male branches shall 
have the same right of becoming members, as the children of the 
actual members of the Society. The Institution has always been con- 
strued as including among the officers entitled to membership, those 
of the Navy and Marine Corps. 

PERPETUATION 

In order to perpetuate the Society, its founders made provision 
that the right of membership should descend through their eldest 
male posterity, or, in failure thereof, through the collateral branches 
who might be judged worthy of becoming its supporters and mem- 
bers. In certain cases, Revolutionary officers who were eligible to 
join the Cincinnati were prevented from doing so from one cause or 
another, but the right to membership created by their army service 
in each instance, is transmitted to their posterity in the same manner 
as in the case of officers who signed the roll as original members, 
except for the deficiency of the month's pay. A right to membership 
can be represented by only one person at a time, and any one person 
can represent but one right. In case an individual inherits two 
rights, it is the custom of the Society to sever them and pass one 
to the next person in line of succession. 

QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP 

Qualifications for eligibility to membership in the Society of 
the Cincinnati in the State of New York are today as they were de- 
fined by the founders and are personal and hereditary in character. 
In order to be elected to membership, one must be of lawful age, a 
gentleman and a man of honor, in sympathy with the interests of the 
community in general and of the Society in particular. The heredi- 
tary requirement calls for descent by male primogeniture from an 
eligible Revolutionary officer. No waiver in another person's favor 
of a right to membership is permitted in New York. In case a man, 
otherwise eligible to be admitted to membership in this State, is un- 
worthy, or fails to exercise his right to become a member, that right 
remains dormant until his death, when it passes to his heir, as is 
explained herein. 



DESCENT 

In case a member has daughters b.it no son, his birthright of 
eligibility descends through his eldest daughter who bears a male 
child, hit if the said member should have brothers, it would he the 
next eldest of them through whom the descent would pass, or if no 
brothers and there is another male line from the original member, 
the right passes to it, in order that the hereditary right should be 
kept in the male line and retain the surname as far as possible. In 
case of the descent passing through a daughter, the right would re- 
main dormant until her eldest son attained his majority. In case of 
the direct lineage of an original member, both male and female, be- 
coming extinct, the eligibility in that right passes to the member's 
eldest male collateral dsecendant who may be judged worthy. The 
word "collateral" is thus defined in the Century Dictionary: 

Descending from the same stock or ancestor (commonly male) as an- 
other, but in a different line: distinguished from lineal. Thus, the children 
of brothers are collateral relations, having different fathers, but a common 
grandfather. 

In 1884 the General Society adopted the following resolution: 
"Resolved, That the General Society conceives the true interpretati n 
of the Institution regarding the descent is that the Original Member is to be 
considered the praepositus from whom the succession is to be derived, and that 
the collateral branches are those collateral to the Original Member, and the 
succession shouktbe through females, until all the male lines have become 
extinct. 

The Institution provides for the election of honorary members 
in the following words : 

As there x4*i are. and will at all times be, men in the respective States, 
eminent for their abilities and patriotism, whose views may be directed to the 
same laudable objects with those of the Cincinnati, it shall be a rule to admit 
such characters as Honorary members of the Society, for their own lives only. 

Among the names of those who have been hereditary or honorary 
members of the Society, are found those of Washington. Lafayette, 
franklin, Hamilton. Knox, Rochambeau, Steuben, D'Estaing, dc 
Grasse, Schuyler, Bainbridge, I lull, Macdonough, Dewey, Andrew 
Jackson, W'inrield Scott Hancock, Oliver Hazard Perry, Hamilton 
Fish, Grant, Cleveland and Roosevelt. 



INSIGNIA 

The insignia of the Society is a gold and enamel eagle sus- 
pended by a ribbon of blue, edged with white, to signify the alliance 
of France with the United States of America. The order bears, 
among other symbolic designs, the figure of Cincinnatus and the 
motto, ''Omnia reliquit servare rempublicam" . The whole was de- 
signed by a French officer of engineers serving in the American 
Army, Major L'Enfant, who afterward laid out the plan of the city 
of Washington as it exists today. Some of the original eagles, made 
from dies cut in France, are still to be seen worn by members at their 
meetings. The order is recognized and honored in foreign countries. 

AIMS AND IDEALS 

The aims of the Society are the same today as they were yes- 
terday and the same yesterday as they were a century and a third 
ago. Though in the natural course of events it may be that the 
already ancient fraternity is doomed to gradual extinction as the 
Colonial blood of the nation becomes more and more diluted in the 
melting pot, yet until the last State Society of the Cincinnati has 
disappeared, it should remain a living monument to the deeds and 
heroism of the brave men who founded the Republic, a link with the 
post and a proud heritage of those men whose ancestors bought their 
right to be its members with their blood and suffering. When the 
founders said that the Cincinnati should be one society of friends, 
they laid down a principle which has become an infrffence for cordial 
relations through successive generations of members 'and is a living 
force today. 

The ideals for which the Society stands are in sharp contrast to 
the distrust, the selfishness and the lust for power which have infected 
many social groups who seem to have forgotten what patriotism is 
in these restless days following in the wake of the World War. 
This one society of friends does not seek to attain domination in the 
land, but rather seeks liberty under the law and justice for all. Its 
founders had in their hands the arms and power which would have 
made it easy for them to usurp the military and political control 
ot their country, but, when their task was accomplished, they laid 
down their arms and returned to peaceful occupations. In their 
role as leaders in the enterprise of welding the Colonies into a free 
and independent nation, they helped in awakening a spirit of liberty 
which has penetrated to every corner of the earth. 



Founded before the Constitution of the United States was 
written, and possessing patriotic memories and ideals, the Society 
of the Cincinnati has a claim upon the interest of all Americans 
and particularly upon those whose forefathers were associated with 
its origins. Membership in the Society is looked upon as an honor, 
hut the hereditary succession to eligibility is an accident of birth 
and carries with it no certificate of personal worth. Such heredity 
does carry with it, however, certain obligations which may not be 
lightly disregarded. Among these is the call to stand forth and 
permit oneself to be counted with public-spirited citizens. Americans 
who love their country and who find themselves to be eligible to 
membership in the Society of the Cincinnati, will not withhold their 
response to the call to participate with that order in its endeavor 
to keep alive a spirit which will tend to make of this nation, one 
society of friends. Patriotism, as a recent editorial writer has 
pointed out. should be more widely organized, more militant and 
intelligent in America. 



Officers of the Society in the State of New York 

President — Talbot I >lyphant 
Vice-President — Francis Key Pendleti in 
Secretary — Francis Burrall I [offman 
Treasurer — Thomas Ludlow Chrystie 
Chaplain — Rev. Alexander Hamilton 
Surgeon — Forbes Hawkes, M, D. 

Standing Committee, the above Officers and 

William Henry Addoms 2nd (Died) Louis Condit Hay 

Ward Belknap Richard Ogden 

Charles Alexander Clinton, M. D. William Sturgis Thomas, M. D 

George Elsworth Dunscomb Paul Ernest Tiemann M. D. 

Committee on Claims and Admissions 

William Sturgis Thomas, M. D., Chairman. 
Francis Key Pendleton,.. 

Francis Burrall Hoffman, 
Edward Wright Tap?, 
Richard Ogden. 

Delegates and Alternates to the General Society 

Delegates. Alternates 

Talbot Olyphant Edward Wright Tapp 

Francis Key Pendleton William Sturgis Thomas. M. D. 

Hamilton Fish William Henry Addoms. 2nd (Died: 

McDougall Hawkes William Morris Austin 

Francis Burrall Hoffman Theodorus Bailey, M. D. 

Trustees 

Edward Wright Tan Hamilton Fish Thomas DeWitt Cuyleb 



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M. A. RICH. Printer, 53 Fuhon St. New York 



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